President Shigeru Kimoto told reporters Tuesday that the retailer expected a 14% drop in sales for the month from a year earlier, following a jump of 32% in March as customers loaded up on high-priced items such as jewelry ahead of the tax increase.

Sanrio Co. displayed a Hello Kitty-shaped sofa at its headquarters in Tokyo.

A deep chill in consumer spending could prompt the central bank to introduce further monetary easing or the government to unveil additional stimulus to keep Japan’s one-and-a-half-year economic recovery going.

Still, other retailers who released earnings this week haven’t seen as drastic a fall as Takashimaya.

Japan’s third-largest convenience store chain, Family Mart, said sales at existing stores dropped 5% in the first seven days of April from a year earlier. Excluding tobacco sales, however, they rose 1.0%.Supermarket chain Daiei said sales fell 8% at its roughly 200 stores.

“Hopefully sales will have returned to normal by the Golden Week holidays” at the beginning of May, Daiei President Shohei Murai said Tuesday, noting that customers had stocked up on a month or two worth of items before the tax increase took effect.

About Japan Real Time

Japan Real Time is a newsy, concise guide to what works, what doesn’t and why in the one-time poster child for Asian development, as it struggles to keep pace with faster-growing neighbors while competing with Europe for Michelin-rated restaurants. Drawing on the expertise of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, the site provides an inside track on business, politics and lifestyle in Japan as it comes to terms with being overtaken by China as the world’s second-biggest economy. You can contact the editors at japanrealtime@wsj.com